Dakota Territory
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Dakota Territory was the name of the northernmost part of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase of the United States from 1861 to 1889.
Most of Dakota Territory was formerly part of the Minnesota and Nebraska territories. When Minnesota became a state in 1858, the leftover area east of the Missouri River fell unorganized. When the Yankton Treaty was signed later that year, ceding much of what had been Lakota land to the U.S. Government, early settlers formed an unofficial provisional government and unsuccessfully lobbied for United States territory status. However, it wasn't until three years later when President Abraham Lincoln's cousin-in-law, J.B.S. Todd, personally lobbied for territory status that Washington formally created Dakota Territory.
It became a historic, organized territory on March 2, 1861. Upon creation, the territory of Dakota Territory included much of present-day Montana and Wyoming; by 1868, creation of new territories reduced Dakota Territory to the present boundaries of the Dakotas.
The territorial capital was Yankton from 1861 until 1883, when it was moved to Bismarck. Dakota Territory was divided into the states of North Dakota and South Dakota on November 2, 1889. The admission of two states, as opposed to one, was done for a number of reasons. The two centers of population in the territory were in the northeast and southeast corners of the territory, several hundred miles away from each other. On a national level, there was pressure from the Republican Party to admit the two states rather than one to add political power in the Senate.
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[edit] Life in Dakota Territory
After becoming an organized territory, population increased very slowly during the early years and then very rapidly with the "Dakota Boom" from 1870 to 1880.[1] Population grew slowly for a number or reasons. Mainly, the Sioux Indians were considered very hostile and a threat to early settlers. They were gradually defeated and were not as severe a threat. [2] The population increase can largely be attributed to the growth of railroads, specifically the Northern Pacific Railroad. Settlers that came to the Dakota Territory were from other western territories as well as many from Northern and Western Europe. These included large number of Norwegians, Germans, Swedes, and Canadiens. [3]
Life in the Dakotas was organized around agriculture and the fertile soil. Wheat became the main cash crop of the territory. Economic hardship hit the Dakotas in the 1880s because of a decline in price of wheat and a drought that hit the territory hard. Other economic activities included mining and cattle ranching. Gold was discovered in the Black Hills and attracted more settlers to the area. This population increase in many ways led to more of a necessity for meat products and cattle ranching became prominent on the Dakota's vast open ranges. [4]
[edit] Women in the Dakota Territory
Married and single women came to the Dakota territory for a variety of reasons. Obviously most married women came following their husbands. Single women usually came to make money on their own or to find a husband. Raising children was the responsibility of the women. Women in the Dakota territory also started schools and churches. [5]
[edit] Notes
- ^ The New Encyclopedia of the American West. Ed. Howard R. Lamar. 1998 Yale University Press, New Haven. pp. 282
- ^ Encyclopedia of the American West. Ed. Charles Philips and Alan Axelrod. 1996 Macmillan Reference USA, New York. pp.1200-1201
- ^ John H. Hudson, "Migration to an American Frontier," Annals of the Assocation of American Geographers,(June 1976), 243-244
- ^ The New Encylcopedia of the American West, 282
- ^ Ibid., 282
[edit] See also
- United States Congressional Delegations from Dakota Territory
- Governors of Dakota Territory
- Historic regions of the United States
